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Soviet Log 12
Soviet Log 12 - Return to Stalingrad Finishing off your week of R&R in Nukus, you all head out convoy style, with the Party Van acting as your Blocker Car for the Loot Truck. Prior to leaving, Katya did a quick scan for bugs without the proper equipment and rolling a 1. Needless to say, you ventured out with renewed confidence for several hours before encountering a blockage in the road and some soviet soldiers already stopped. In the midst of the Party's confusion about who was in the van and who wasn't, borg needler fire erupts from the ridge overlooking the road, striking unerringly into Rockette. Fortuntately, the additional protection of the van saved her from being completely squelched but the Swedish Borg managed to escape in the waiting Aerosan. As it began to pull away at air speed 12, it slowed momentarily to perhaps draw some of the pursuers away from the group but cooler heads prevailed and the Aerosan sped away, switching to atmospheric. The rest of the journey was marked by the party interrogating Rockette about why some super-slick Swedish Borg would try to assassinate her. You don't really learn anything other than what you already suspected, Rockette was part of augmentation experiment and escaped, leaving other test subjects behind. Why they would track and attempt to eliminate Rockette is unknown. Hell you're still not sure how they were able to track Rockette. Mei Lin managed to disintegrate the rock while Katya distracted the soldiers with her new "charm". The convoy then took off again, heading into Stalingrad, where you no doubt expected to spend most of your time when you started. As you pull into base, you reflect on the strange adventures that have led you to this point. Your squadmates from the first night greet you and indicate that something happened again, similar to the first time you met Baba Yaga. Turns out that they all developed specialities when Baba Yaga met you outside of Smaraqand, further cementing whatever link there might be between you. Your Captain welcomes you back and orders you to get into uniform and make yourself presentable for General, Yakushev, the Red Army commander for Stalingrad's defence. Brightmeer says his goodbyes and takes his leave as he must return to Moscow and report back to Stalin on Gerisimov's safety. He indicates that he will get back to you once he knows more about the "situation" in the capital (the "situation" being Stalin's possible madness and possession by the Black Goat of the Woods). You manage to clean up nice and Yakushev rewards you for your defence of Stalingrad at the beginning of the campaign. He presents you with a medal as Hero of the Soviet Union and promotes you to Lieutenant. He then pulls out a map and gets to work, showing an airport and bunker to the south held by the the Nazis near Korral Commea Chapel. He explains that these defences are held mostly by Italian troops and protect several companies. He needs you to knock out the defences so he can move troops down unopposed. The airport is a problem because it gives another angle of attack on Stalingrad from the air (you recall that you had previously been defending north of the city, along the river).The bunker is another problem because it is so well defended and prevents any kind of safe movement along with roads. He also issues some salvage and gives you 10 days to gitt'erdun. Now that you're finally out of the mystical orient of the USSR's south, Mei Lin decided she needed a flying carpet (seriously???) and with Katya's help, she did manage to procure one, providing flight to anyone who didn't already have the ability. The rest of the party occupied themselves with removing their stealth penalties to undertake a recon mission to the bunker. The Rock went on record as the recon mission being a terrible plan. Flying down to the bunker only took 10-15 minutes at air speed and the party used its first ever unmodified Party Rogue skill to sneak past the first line of defence (even though you bailed your roll, the forest provided enough cover to keep everyone hidden). Sure enough, you pick up traces of Italian from the lines and identify a few likely targets, such as the fuel dump at the airport and the tank guarding the bridge. You also see a few German officers, including some badass with a gatling gun at the airport. As you wrap up and head back to base, you sure wish you knew Nazi Lore and/or Military Intelligence. Back at Stalingrad, a steampunk Arab delivers Eva a letter, postmarked from the US. Some memory recovery and science checks later, Eva uncovered the message's true meaning (I should have dropped this on you earlier in the session when sobriety reigned). Katya ran into her old friends, Alexei and Genni from the Silk Road Express, who gave her a mesage from Vasilly and indicated that Stalin himself had taken an interest and the party could be expected to make a trip to the capital soon. Rewards: *1 completed combat *7 Generic XP Salvage and Time: *50,000 Weapon/Armour *25,000 Equipment *25,000 Mystic *4 Blocks spent, 36 left before your deadline Plot Threads (you're starting to accumulate some interesting leads and since you're idiots, I'm listing them here): *Party: Operation Wafle Stomp *Party: Kill Stalin *Mei Lin: Correspondence fragment with the location of a "cleansed" Cult of Leng" hideout. *Katya: Vasily wants to see you before you meet Stalin. *Eva: All roads lead to Berlin! You also recall Lisolette's connection to Schumann. *The Rock: Swedish Borg Assasins do not give up. *Nat: I called it on Nov 30 that I would blame any plotholes on the late addition of your character so yeah, no leads yet... Category:Soviet